A Tale of Two Statues: a conversation with Jordan Shouse about sickness

One of my goals with this podcast is to introduce an audience I love to people I love.  I’d love for you to meet Jordan Shouse.  Jordan is a father of four, a preacher in the Dallas Fort-Worth area, and one of the kindest men you will ever meet.  He has a heart for people, and an empathetic nature that has only been honed by the journey God has taken him on.

Jordan very kindly offered to talk with me on the record about his harrowing health journey and the impact it had on his faith, his family, his preaching, and his connection with others going through their own health trials.  I wasn’t sure whether he would want to talk about it publicly like this, but unsurprisingly, Jordan is an open book.

I entitled this conversation, ‘A Tale of Two Statues’ and as you listen, I think you will understand why. 

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

Transcript

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I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone. 

One of my goals with this podcast is to introduce an audience I love to people I love.  I’d love for you to meet Jordan Shouse.  Jordan is a father of four, a preacher in the Dallas Fort-Worth area, and one of the kindest men you will ever meet.  He has a heart for people, and an empathetic nature that has only been honed by the journey God has taken him on.

Jordan very kindly offered to talk with me on the record about his harrowing health journey and the impact it had on his faith, his family, his preaching, and his connection with others going through their own health trials.  I wasn’t sure whether he would want to talk about it publicly like this, but unsurprisingly, Jordan is an open book.

Jordan is patient, driven, kind, and a blessing in my life, and I’m thankful he is my friend.  I entitled this conversation, ‘A Tale of Two Statues’ and as you listen, I think you will understand why.

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Jordan Shouse: My name is Jordan Shouse. I live in the Dallas, Texas area. I've been preaching the gospel for 16 years. My wife Holly and I have been married for 14 years and we have four children, three of which are adopted from South Korea, and our little baby just born this January.

Scott Beyer: So life is very busy for you. 

Jordan Shouse: Very busy and very good. Very blessed. 

Scott Beyer: Jordan is in town holding a meeting for us here at Eastland and I will just be up front with you. Jordan's one of my favorite preachers to listen. to.

We'll edit that out. We can edit it out, but I'll just put it on the front end. But, Jordan, you and I talked ahead of time here that we're in the middle as a congregation, as well as in this podcast, of talking about loving the Lord your God with all your soul. Yes. And the soul is this Somewhat ephemeral thing to quantify.

Jordan Shouse: Oh, it is. 

Scott Beyer: But on the other hand, we all recognize we have one. I dare you to tell somebody they have no soul and then not get upset about it. That's right. One of the things that I think about the value of a soul is just the fact that life is precious and fragile. Yes. I know you don't talk about it a lot.

Sure. But you have been through some stuff in the last, 

Jordan Shouse: what, 18 months? 18 months. I have. So for those who are new to the journey, I'll just give you the quick synopsis. My family history, in terms of my parents and grandparents, have had a history of colon issues. And so my mother had been on my back at 35 years old to go and get a colonoscopy, which is not high on any 30 year old's list at all, not even knowing what it was.

But I, I finally said, okay I'll get one done. And at 36 years old, I went and had my colonoscopy on Monday and within the span of a week was told I had a mass. It was diagnosed at stage 3 colon cancer. I was meeting with oncologists and having tests done and There are several things in the moment That led to it feeling perhaps more serious than it was that we didn't know it And so one obviously when you hear the cancer word, that's just it just steals your breath away And I'm thankful to the Lord that I get to experience that or I got to experience it because there are so many who have lived that And comforting someone without knowing the experience is just different.

And so having sat in the room and seeing your mate well up in tears, and having questions that seemed lost because you're so focused on that one word and what it means that was the moment that I will remember. And when the doctor went through and talked about the cancer and what life was going to look like and And the reality of what could be cause the other thing, I don't know if you remember, but the actor Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther, had recently passed away from colon cancer.

And he was in his late 30s. Oh, 

Scott Beyer: And that's happening at the exact same time that you're getting this diagnosis. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. Wow. I don't think it really hit, the emotion of it all until the nurse came in and had us gather our things. Just that word that was there, and she said, Do you have any children?

And that's when it hit. And that, that to me, I think will be one of the moments that will always stay with me. Because it wasn't fear, I don't think fear ever set in about dying, or being with the Lord. Immediately, I realized what I perceived as having Obviously a lifetime, but ultimately, in the crux of it, 18 to 20 years with these children now might have become one or two years.

And that whole day, that is what filled my mind, is what do I say? If I have one year, what do I leave my children with that will help them and bless them and stay with them with the knowledge of my departure? And that was hard. That was really hard. And there were moments I felt I did better with it, and things that kind of came to the forefront of I really want my boys to grasp about manhood, and my precious girl, I wanted her to understand about who she was, but then there were times I really got low about it, thinking there's so much I just cannot impress upon them.

It's not going to happen in that time. I guess to fast forward a bit, and then we can talk some more. Of things that happened and learned along the way. We we scheduled a surgery quickly to get it out until Friday of that same week. I had a massive part of the colon removed and they were going to test it and see if it was cancerous and then by God's good grace it came out benign and so there was no cancer.

So it was just about a journey of a few weeks all together. Felt a lot longer the in between. I'm sure every day felt like a year. But in the midst of it that certainly was there, there was so much learned and gained in that moment. A few things I can remember and maybe this might help some along the way in a journey again the confidence of my soul never really was there.

Questioning about salvation was never really there. And I just give thanks to God for that. I think that's just so much about what He has done and where He has brought me to where I never really questioned if this was it, if I was going to go on to heaven. And so my concern wasn't about that. There wasn't those deep prayers of grace and forgiveness for things I felt had been put off.

My sole focus was my family. And so I thought a lot about my wife, leaving her behind with the children. I thought a lot about my children. And with the three adopted children, they had been through so much already. I wondered, at this point, having experienced their own challenges and personal traumas, in terms of just the journey of adoption, what will this bring to them?

And how will this challenge them or bless them? Another 

Scott Beyer: potential layer of loss that they would have to navigate. 

Jordan Shouse: That's exactly right. As stable as things are now, and they were wonderful, What will this then do to them along the way? And so I wrestled with that. The other component that when things got good, you know, that the news was good and praising God and brethren are, I really truly believe the reason that all came out the way it was because obviously of God's grace.

But there were brethren who ceaselessly prayed. And I believe it was the answer to prayer. And they were so pivotal. There's a passage in 2 Corinthians 1 where Paul says, God who comforts the depressed comforts us so that we may go and comfort others. And it's learned that sometimes the answer to a prayer is not something, but someone.

And that was really pivotal and important for me to see that in this moment I didn't feel like talking a whole lot. But I knew I needed people. Berating with text messages and emails and Facebook messages and all it was and it's a it's like people instinctively knew You don't have to respond 

Scott Beyer: right?

Jordan Shouse: I don't need a back and forth. Yep, but I just want you to know and there were scripture They would share Hymns that they would share and or just prayers and just thoughts and cards One that stuck with me, just because it was our annual theme last year, our theme for the year at Campbell Road was, O Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

And one of our now shepherds wives texted me, she goes, today I've been thinking, tune my heart to seeing thy praise. And she had this text that said, I don't want to. I don't want to sing praise today knowing you're mourning and grieving. But I know whatever this is will bring about God's glory and that, that stayed with me.

Because when all came back good, my response to her was, Ode to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. I've got this beautiful lasting reminder. I, what I tell the church is, and it may be a little visual, I have an ebenezer now between my chest and my stomach that will be there forever.

This lasting scar. That is an Ebenezer of a God who has brought life for him once, so I thought there was death. So that was very vivid. 

Scott Beyer: Both of us being fathers, both of us being fathers of children who've been through the adoption journey, which comes with its own trials, just to put it that way, and both of us being Christians.

Yes. I completely resonate with this idea of, you don't worry about what's going to happen to you, but I think about Paul saying, to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's right. The dying part, I know I'll be okay, but the reason we live is there's Christ's work left to do, and a lot of times that work is in our families.

That's right. But I do wonder sometimes if all of us had a sense that maybe I only have a year, would I raise my kids different? That's right. Are we wasting that time that's such a precious thing, as Paul says, the days are evil. That's right. Because you don't get them back, and I'm as guilty as the next person to just squander 24 hours or that time that my kid comes up to me with something they're excited about and I'm Busy, which might mean I'm looking at Instagram, which is not really busy, right? And you waste a moment. Yes, I think There's something clarifying.

Yeah, right when you start putting a number on it, so absolutely But the truth is we all have that number. It's all a countdown. 

Jordan Shouse: It's there. I think so last night Last night study at the Eastland Church was on Hannah and one thing we made the point of is that when Samuel finally comes on the scene and She knows she's going to give him to Eli, right?

There comes down has been made. It's there that promise is given in the midst of the story her husband's gonna go back to Shiloh and offer the offering and So he goes to her and she says no I'm not going. And that verse there, in many ways, is what every parent needs to have right in the forefront of their brain for as long as those kids are in their home.

She was so intentional, I've only got this moment. And I know it's going to be given to the Lord, and if he's going to be who I have promised he's going to be, and the Lord needs him to be, I can't be distracted even with a trip to Shiloh to offer this offering. And that, to me, is one of the most important.

Powerful pictures of intentionality as a parent. I've only got this. I've got this window And those who have lived it and you've lived it Scott where it's like the days seem so long But then you blink and it's wait a minute. What do you mean? 

Scott Beyer: Yeah, it's 

Jordan Shouse: teenage. It's high school It's married now and the baby on the way.

Scott Beyer: Yeah, 

Jordan Shouse: it's so fast. 

Scott Beyer: Yeah, I will tell you as somebody who is Given his daughter away in marriage. Yes. We had the, what do they call it? What is this? The reveal of the bride to the father. And so she had it all set up. So I would see her in her wedding dress And buckets of tears.

It happens fast. It happens really fast. And you either try and do something with that time or you don't. Yes. Because the time's gonna move regardless. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: And then the other thing is this sense of fragility of life, right? You think you're in the prime of life, and the funny thing is you think you're in the prime of life, Even when you're not in it anymore, right?

Ask people in their 50s and 60s and they still mentally feel younger than that. That's 

Jordan Shouse: right. 

Scott Beyer: But we're all on the journey of the outer man decaying 

And it doesn't take much. In one sense, the human body is very robust and able to Yes. recover. Yes. In another sense Man, just the smallest thing can end it all.

Jordan Shouse: Those little reminders. Those little echoes. We forget. It's all temporary. Yeah. 

And 

Scott Beyer: that, And that body that we have is a vessel for our soul here. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes. 

Scott Beyer: So your soul's not going anywhere. That's right. It's going to remain in existence. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: Either eternally with God or eternally apart from God.

Yes. But your time For your soul to be here, which is the time of doing. It's the time of either living for yourself or living for Christ. That is a finite thing and it's dependent on how long this tabernacle, we have this tent, lasts. Which, we tend to assume is longer than what it is. I would like 

Jordan Shouse: to think so.

Yeah. That's our plan. I love that language that you used. It's a time of doing. 

Scott Beyer: Hebrews 9, 

Jordan Shouse: 27, 

Scott Beyer: the appointment to die once, and then the judgment, right? So here is your, you gotta get to living, because this is your window, and there's so many things that need to be done.

That's right. Whether you have kids, or whether you're single, the need for people who have Jesus in their life to go reach the lives of people who don't have Jesus in their life. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: It's not a shortage of work. It's a shortage of workers, right? 

Jordan Shouse: Boy. As parents, we have goals for our kids and it's met differently. Like we have echoes of this a lot of different ways. Like you go to the doctor every year and there are certain measurables they should be reaching at, right? Certain growth charts and development and all those things.

Or even in terms of just a life plan, but at this point you should know these things and go to this school and we're setting them on this trajectory. But it's to think of that in any kind of spiritual capacity is the ultimate goal. 

Scott Beyer: Yeah, 

Jordan Shouse: where it's like what at this point in my child's life.

What where should they be spiritually? What are things they should be knowing and doing and serving? And that's I think our wrestle is that It's either we don't think in those thoughts until it doesn't hit it and it doesn't tell me it was too late or that is the thing is that we wait a little too late to try and start instituting some of these thoughts and measureables and then we're wrestling with A mind that's a worldview that's set in a mentality that's more fixed and I have to Rewire and rework a life that has not had any room in it for kingdom service Yeah, or intentionality.

Scott Beyer: Yeah, I think when you start talking about the goal for any soul But in particular, you and I are both we're in the child raising era So it you fixate on it more right because it's right in front of you. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes 

Scott Beyer: Is to build spiritual resilience. Yes. And honestly, that's what I think of when I think of your circumstances.

You went through the valley of the shadow of death. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: You actually were never going to die. No. You didn't know that. No, 

Jordan Shouse: that's right. So 

Scott Beyer: the shadow of death was absolutely right there. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes. 

Scott Beyer: And as you go through that, the hope for every individual, would be that they would draw closer to God. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes.

Scott Beyer: And model that faith in him as he takes you through the valley. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: And as you said, we're going to, we're going to have good days and bad days in that, we're moving a certain direction. That's right. And that's what we want for our kids because there's a kind of a, come a point with our kids where they're going to go through things and you can't go through it for them.

Jordan Shouse: Yes. 

Scott Beyer: They're going to have that resilience and Eyes fixed on heaven for themselves. 

Jordan Shouse: That's exactly right. I, that was one thing along the way we both have had kids that are sick, and it's like every parent's inward desire is I would take that from you right now. Oh, in a heartbeat. Take it off.

It's miserable. As I went through this though, I didn't want them to feel the same way. So there's a lot of this, I didn't really share with the children. One of the questions I was asked by a lot of people post all of this was This did this pull you closer together as a family? And the answer is really no But that's not because it didn't provide the opportunity or said This we didn't let it come into the family And so we didn't really share a lot of what was going on with our children we didn't use we I don't think we ever used the word cancer with the kids I didn't want them to wear that weight and now my kids are younger and so were they older that might have been a different story and so at the same time we just continue to try my wife and I to Display confidence and an assurance.

They knew I was sick and they knew something was a little different But the weight of whatever it was in the moment We didn't want to burden them with that Obviously if things have gotten much serious they would have had to have known and shared it with them. And so looking back, I think, at least for myself, I'm thankful that was the path we chose because our children, especially children of adoption, have so much of their own baggage that they're still wrestling with it.

They'll wrestle with it the rest of their life as they're unpacking and the history and the emotions and the feelings of it all. And that was a hard choice looking back that I'm glad we made. 

Scott Beyer: That makes sense, though, and it's not like your kids won't, as they get older, have an opportunity to know some of that backstory, they learn things about their parents sometimes down the road that they didn't know in the moment, and then they can retroactively look back and say look, while they were going through that, I had a normal childhood, my parents still loved the Lord, they didn't give up that confidence. Yes. And so there, I think there's a retroactive teaching that can be brought into that, especially like you said with younger kids, because age appropriate matters with stuff.

Yes. Oh yes. Speaking of kids. Yes. It's 18 months ago, you go through all of this. You had three at the time. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: How many you got now? 

Jordan Shouse: I've got four now. Yep. That was the. Oh, I don't even have the words for it. Where, again, it's death to life is one word, but you just have God's just abundant blessings.

Where the surgery was in February, and then in May, we find out we're expecting. And a whole new journey takes place, and you just see God's hand in all of it. God's amazing blessings. I'll share one thing, and it may be a vain thought for talking for a moment, and I don't know if this would work, It would resonate with anyone the way it did with me.

At the same time, I went through all the things with my health. There was another young brother at the church, two months younger than me, who also had cancer. Esophageal cancer. And he would text me. And talk about what treatment did you have today or what test and I'd share with him how mine was and he'd say how'd that feel and I'd share with them and I'd say how you feeling and so we commiserated together about some of the journey we were going through but he often was far more encouraging early on about just holding fast to prayer and faith and then that kind of reversed as mine was coming more clear and just reaching out with one another.

I got my clear diagnosis in February that all was clear. He passed away from cancer that summer. 

Scott Beyer: Wow. 

Jordan Shouse: And, or actually it was before that. It was really that spring. Because I was back in that first sermon in April, I was able to speak to this. Because that was hard. 

Scott Beyer: And it's a reminder that, As much as I am so thankful, as you said, so many people were praying, my family was praying, we got the answer we were all hoping for.

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: Sometimes God does have another answer. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: And that doesn't mean he's any less good or any less faithful. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: But we have to be prepared sometimes for his answer to be not what we wanted. 

Jordan Shouse: That's right. Where I've come to it at, in the building of my oncologist, where, in the lobby, were two giant statues, just huge.

And on one end, it was a statue of the angel Gabriel stepping on Satan's head, just crushing him down. It was really cool. Then on the complete other end, it is a statue of an angel carrying a fallen soldier who's died. 

And I remember when I got the good news, I walked the lobby, and I just walked between those statues, and I felt like these statues are telling my and this brother's story.

Where I have this victory, and Satan is not going to win this battle over me, and then he is losing his battle. And it took a text message from him to me to help me realize those statues are telling the same story. His text was, whether in life or in death, God will give me the victory. And that's what stood the most, and that I think is something I will take with me the rest of my life.

Is that, whether if I win this victory this illness, and it all goes away and I'm healed, or if this is it, my God will still be victorious. And He is still good. And the ultimate prize of an eternity with Him is something that not even death, not even cancer, nothing can touch and take from me.

Scott Beyer: I think one of the hardest parts of life as a Christian is being clay in the potter's hand. Yeah. Because clay has to be malleable. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes. 

Scott Beyer: And I like the idea of God's plan. And God directing my life as long as that direction is the one I pick. But what you're describing is 

Jordan Shouse: I like those plans. 

Scott Beyer: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

As long as we're in agreement. That's right. I am absolutely on board with being clay in the potter's hand. That's right. But what you're describing is the reality That's not faith. Faith is whether God chooses to use you as an example of victory over death or victory through death. That's his call.

Jordan Shouse: That's right. 

Scott Beyer: And I'm always gonna have opinions on that. Yes. But The ultimate decider needs to be him and I need to roll with that. And that is, I think, a big part of the journey of faith is becoming so saturated in I'm going to be the following disciple. 

Jordan Shouse: Yes. Yeah. Even if I don't understand it, or like it, or maybe to take the language from Paul, and I think this is where some live, in the survivor's guilt, where it's like, why am I like that?

How this better? Paul had that section in Philippians 1, I think around 20, where he says whether in life or in death. My aim is to glorify God. Yep. And so the question is, okay, if this is it and this is the end of my story, how will I glorify God in my end? 

I'm losing my faith. Not going out, all bitter and angry, but going out full of faith and confidence.

How will I glorify God if this is my end? But sometimes it's a harder question. We do this as preachers. We say, we get in the pulpit and we say, if this was your last day, are you ready? I think the greater question is, okay, but what if you live like 20 more years? What we do with that. And so now that God has given me life, what will I do with that?

Scott Beyer: I think there's, in other relationships, you think about it, there's lots of men who would die for their wife. 

Jordan Shouse: I 

Scott Beyer: would die for her. I would throw myself in front of a bus for her. But will you take the garbage out for her? Would you live the next 20 years as a servant in your marriage? While you're waiting for that bus when you do the dishes.

Exactly! Could you take this out to the curb while you're waiting for that bus to hit you? I think we do that in our relationships and we do it in our relationship with God where we say yeah I would do some great thing. Yes, and you're almost back to the Naaman paradox then, right? Naaman who is told yeah, you can be cured of this leprosy, but you just got to go do the simple thing Yes, it's I would do some great and powerful thing.

Yes. That's what he had in mind That's so true, but the day to day stuff. Yes, that's where it happens. 

Jordan Shouse: Yeah, is that true? Yeah, so true 

Scott Beyer: and you're right I think If you had only one day we can paint a picture of what I do with one day. Yeah, but 20 years that's the real work for most of us.

Jordan Shouse: That's that's life 

Scott Beyer: Yeah, the 

Jordan Shouse: other side with that when James would say consider it all joy when you encounter various trials You remember 9 11 or maybe 9 12 right? Yeah, how everyone all at once came back together, at least for a moment, and seemed to be turned towards the Lord and going to churches.

I really believe if Satan had a tactic book, his plan would be leave him alone. They're rich and they're happy and they're healthy and so they don't need God. Sometimes it's these jarring moments that can be gifts from God that say, I just, I want to wake you. 

Scott Beyer: You're 

Jordan Shouse: so lost and distracted.

And so I'm going to gift you this opportunity, maybe I didn't cause it, 

Scott Beyer: but 

Jordan Shouse: I'm certainly going to allow you the opportunity to wander and to face this wilderness and this storm, realizing what it can do for you. 

And that I think is something that also for those who've walked this need to guard against is that if God has gifted us these moments of suffering, allowed us to face these soul awakening moments, Then don't go back to sleep when the green pastures come.

Don't lose what you've been taught and gained when the storm rises. 

Scott Beyer: So what do you do to guard against that yourself? Because I can think of moments in my own life that have been the soul awakening moments, and you're absolutely right, the tendency to complacency is very important. Real once you get through it's oh everything's better now and go back to normal.

No, don't that's the danger Don't let it go back. That's right. Yes. Have you found anything that you do to keep that from happening? 

Jordan Shouse: Yeah, and to be honest Not long after life went back to normal and so there are times when it's like humans. Yeah, we're just back to the way it was But the things that have changed and I hope will continue to change for positive good You One is that I have more now, and I see them as such.

These visual reminders of God's grace and goodness. Ebeneezers for me is what I see them. I have certain things. For one, I have a note from a person that I read often. My dad bought me a little miniature statue of that statue that was in the college's office. And so in my office, I will rub the a part of that statue when I go by and think, and I'll think of my brother who passed away, and I'll think of where I am, and thank God.

For myself, maybe a little too TMI, but I have a scar that every morning when I'm getting changed I see those. And so I have visual built in thanksgivings to God that I hope never change. I hope I don't lose that along the way. But I guess I would say that the other thing that has come as a positive change.

Is that there's some things I'm just far more intentional on with my kids. It's not that I don't feel like I wasn't, but now it's laser focused. Before I knew it and I don't feel like we were apathetic about some spiritual things with the kids about what we wanted them to do and be active, but we have sensed and motioned some things in our home now because of that.

Certain devotionals and studies prime for each of the ages of the kids. There are certain services in terms of ways that they are serving now that we didn't do before simply because we realized today is the day, that the Lord gave us today. And so some of that has changed about just thinking and planning and prayerfully working together with my wife about here is where our children are.

And by this year, by the end of this year, this is where we want them to be. Just things we want them to be taught and learn and work towards. And that came out of it. That came out of that year of growth. 

Scott Beyer: So find your Ebeneezers and make a plan. 

Jordan Shouse: Stand and sing. 

Scott Beyer: That makes sense, man. 

Jordan Shouse: I love you. I love you, brother.

Scott Beyer: And thanks for taking the time to talk. I really appreciate it. And I know it's not always easy to talk. It's funny, as preachers, we talk all the time, but we tend to not like to talk about ourselves. Yes. So thanks for a little bit of a moment of vulnerability there. Can 

Jordan Shouse: I share one more thing on that real quick?

Absolutely. There's, I know there's some much like the parallel with my story who are facing things right now, and their story's not the same as mine, because they won't get the good news. 

And that's really hard. I feel for those, even right now back home. We have family of some of our members who are going through a rough diagnosis of cancer.

And they're going to the oncologist and the treatments and all those things. And so I just my prayer for them is that whatever it is, Whether if you're on the side of victory, and this is something that God will take from your life, that you'll praise Him, and never lose sight of that thankfulness.

But if it's not, and this is your life's journey, that you don't lose sight that He's still good. Don't blame Him for this. I had to work on that. Don't blame God. I don't believe I ever did, but I knew that intention was there. I was asked why. Why did this happen? Don't lose your faith in the midst of the questions that you're not going to have answers for.

You may not win this battle, but there's a greater victory that is still yet to come. And I guess for all those who don't have the same outcome as mine I guarantee there are still bright days ahead. 

Scott Beyer: Said. Thanks. Thanks. 

Jordan Shouse: Thanks brother. I appreciate that. I appreciate you. I appreciate you greatly.

Thanks for the conversation. Thank you. 

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Thank you for listening.  If you are struggling through the unknown of health trials or your own valley of the shadow of death – reach out to us at scott@biblegrad.com and I can connect you with Jordan and add you to our prayers.  God is good, but sometimes life is hard.

Also, if you want to hear more from Jordan he has a virtually smorgasbord of sermons available through the Campbell Road congregation website – thebibleway.com. I highly recommend you go and check them out.  If you want more information about the work I'm doing at Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org or my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.

And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”